• Monday-What'sUP February 25 - 10:44 pm

Just in case you missed the Lunar Eclipse last Wednesday, we have a special viewing of it from Joseph Hurley. The series here today make the moon look close enough to almost touch. A total Lunar Eclipse occurs when the full moon passes into the earth's shadow and is blocked from the sun's rays that usually illuminate it. The red tinge in the last photo, comes from the particles of dust in the atmosphere and the cloud cover at the time of the eclipse. Since the atmosphere filters out blue light, the indirect light that does reach the moon, makes it appear a reddish or orange tinge. The total eclipse phase lasted about an hour and was the last total Lunar Eclipse until December 20, 2010. There will be a solar eclipse (the kind that requires protective eyewear to view) later this year in August, along with a partial lunar eclipse. So keep your eye on the sky.

Those are great, Mary! Some friends sent some to us and we took some too. Thanks.

Great Scott!! Good view, not from here though.

WOW! Thank you for sharing these awesome photos of the lunar eclipse! I got to watch it start, clear skies here in lower Michigan but I didn't stay up to see the moon change to orange. Good stuff! Have a wonderful day! ~~everyday~~

Keep these Neil Harri photos coming!

I stayed up to watch it, but the only thing I saw was a big cloud bank move in front of it. Oh well maybe It'll be clear Dec 20 2010, I think not!

Great shots, I fell asleep and didn't get to see it.

Oh my gosh! What great pictures! It's funny, but the first thing I did this morning in my fourth grade class was to show them a picture I took of the eclipse the other night. It was okay but nothing like these gorgeous pictures. You would never believe how much I use Pasty.com in my classroom. In fact, Charlie, I plan to use the cameos you have created to enrich my lessons on mining in Michigan, and logging, etc. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Mary:
The explanation that I heard for the reddish color of the moon at full eclipse was slightly different. This astronomer (I forget his name) said the moon appeared reddish at full eclipse because the earths gravitational field actually bends the red light waves and focuses them on the moon, much like a lense. The higher energy blue light is moving too fast to be bent onto the moon. I wonder which explanation is correct?

During a total lunar eclipse, the Earth blocks the Sun's light from reaching the Moon. If an astronaut was on the Moon, they would see the Earth completely eclipse the Sun (i.e., they would see a bright red ring around the Earth as they watched all the sunrises and sunsets happening simultaneousely around the world). While the Moon remains completely within Earth's umbral shadow, indirect sunlight still manages to reach and illuminate the Moon. However, this sunlight must first pass deep through the Earth's atmosphere which filters out most of the blue coloured light. The remaining light is a deep red or orange colour and is much dimmer than pure sunlight. Our atmosphere also bends or refracts some of this light around the Earth so that a small fraction of it can reach and illuminate the Moon.

Hi
What I saw on NASA's website agrees with Mary & Capt.Paul
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/13feb_lunareclipse.htm

Regardless of the left-brain analyses, my right brain liked the view. Totally cool! And I was very thankful that I did get a beautiful clear night down here in SE Michigan.

When the Bible talks of the moon turning to blood, it must surely mean a lunar eclipse! How beautiful these pictures are.

Here in Cincinnati we didn't see any red during the full eclipse. The moon was just a gray shadow of itself.

Those are super pic's of our moon.Looks just like what we got to see here in E.TN.on my birthday,when I was singing out on the deck,"When the Moon hit's your eye's like a big pizza-pie that'a ******."

For all who requested links to the previous Pasty Cameos, you will find them at the bottom of yesterday's Cameo about Underground Illumination. Next month we'll be creating and index of all of these short vignettes.